This seminar includes a series of sessions in which students will be exposed to different films that explore the relationships between narrative and space. The seminar will ask the question: How can one describe space and architecture via the vehicle of cinematic image? For example, how was Antonioni's cinema a promoter of modernity in Italy di-associating himself from the romantic/nostalgic of the Italian landscape.

We will present the four chapters of John Bergers Ways of Seeing in which he looks at forms of pictorial representation. Students will be challenged to choose a venue in Berkeley/Oakland and conclude the seminar by creating a short film that will represent some of the paradigms elaborated in the seminar.

Three films from Gitais work including: Kadosh, Kippur,Lullaby to my Father based on his Bauhaus-trained father and work from his series on architecture will also be screened.

About Amos Gitai (Ph.D Architecture '79):

Alumnus Amos Gitai is an acclaimed Israeli filmmaker who is widely known for making documentaries and feature films about the Middle East and Jewish-Arab conflict.

Gitai's work has been presented in several major retrospectives at the Pompidou Center Paris, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Lincoln Center New York and the British Film Institute London. To date Gitai has created over 90 works of art over 38 years. Between 1999 and 2011 seven of his films were entered in the Cannes Film Festival for the Palme d'Or as well as the Venice Film Festival for the Golden Lion award.

He has received several prestigious prizes which include the Leopard of Honor at the Locarno International Film Festival (2008), the Roberto Rossellini prize (2005), the Robert Bresson prize (2013) and the Paradjanov prize (2014). His recent feature film, Rabin, The Last Day, was presented at the 72th Venice Film Festival.